Door trim a pain to clean?
I don't see how that can be....

There are specialized installers in my area that only do doors. Maybe you have them too... I would avoid the big box installers like the plague.

LuAnn, I am guessing that Franksmom means that cleaning the glass that is divided with the grille ( muntins) is a pain to clean...because it is.

ML

My patio doors have muntins between two panes of glass, so they are very easy to clean - and pretty.

I have a fiberglass entry door from ThermaTru, and I've been very happy with it.

We installed a new Thermatru fiberglass french door a couple of years ago and I am extremely happy with it. I got the one with the grids inside (between the glass) because I also hated cleaning the old one with the grid on the outside. My door opens from the center and both doors open - wonderful for moving furniture, etc in the house.

I priced mine at Lowes but ended up ordering through a local, small-town building supply store which was about $100 cheaper. My DH and a local, very skilled handyman installed mine and they did a "perfect" job.

If I were you and really needed the privacy, I would not hesitate to get the interior installed blinds. I have a door to my mudroom with the interior blinds in the top and they function great. I actually mentioned my fear of mechanical failure of the blinds to a salesperson at Lowes and he made a good point. He said "we literally have hundreds, if not thousands, of customers who have to open and close the blinds on our store display just to see how they work and they are still going strong". I thought that was a pretty good testimonial of the blinds.

I currently work for a company that installs replacement windows and doors.

The little bits I can tell you are you can have grids (muttins) installed between the glass with most companies if you like that look and are not a problem to clean.

Check the warranty on blinds between the glass. IIRC, most only have a very short very limited warranty on moving parts (open/closing of blinds). They do fail. You can get a replacement glass for the door but it'll be out of your pocket to replace it.

True French doors are beautiful but don't seal up as well as a patio door that has one stationary panel. If you are in an area where your house settles from dry to wet conditions, your door will likely be out of adjustment often.

They also have issues with screen if you are in an area where you have bugs you are trying to keep out of the house. Hard to have a screen when both doors open. Typically you can only have one but then have to remove it if you are trying to open the whole door for passage.

Ask about energy effeicency. Make sure you find a door that qualifies for the federal tax credit by having Low-E glass with argon gas.

Go with a reputable door company but I'd stay away from big box stores. Pella at Lowes is a different quality than Pella at a Pella store.

Oh and I have a fiberglass door and we love it. It's textured and stained, we get tons of people thinking it's real wood door.

Pella is the only company I know that has the blinds in the glass. My mom bought hers in 1987 and they still work perfectly.

I bought the Anderson 400 series during my renovation and had it beautifully trimmed with wood moldings. Now, as I look at window treatments, I regret not getting the built in blinds. It's a nice clean look. Window treatment options for sliding doors are rather limited.

I probably need to clarify about both sides opening. One side is left stationary with a deadbolt type lock that goes into the top frame and one that goes into the bottom threshold. We only open that side occasionally when something needs to be moved in or out. It is a center-open door. This is really important to me because of the layout of my house and yard - you could not get a delivery vehicle close to my front door. I have 25 acres and live on a hill-side :).

This door is actually the main entrance to my house off my patio (driveway/parking is right behind it) so I don't need a screen.

I agree with iltrot - make sure it is energy efficient. We did get a tax credit for that door and another one along with two new storm doors. Of course one of those in on my front door that I only use for the view :) I can really tell the difference in cold weather.

We have Reliabilit French doors with the blinds between the glass that we got at Lowe's. The grids are also between the glass. They are fiberglass, were easy to paint, and we got the Energy Star tax credit on them. They are really good and made a huge difference in the draftiness in that area. We've had them 3-4 years. The cost of the doors was something like $800, but we had to pay more because our doors were not a standard size and we had to order.

Both sides open, and there are optional screens that can be ordered.

We also got an estimate from Pella. They were good and they may work for you. They are a little pricey for our more modest neighborhood.

This post was edited by gsciencechick on Thu, Oct 24, 13 at 6:43

Thanks so much for all of the feedback.

My concern about the style with the grids in the glass is what if you want to paint the door? Are you permanently stuck with white?

Tuesday, yes, that's the type of door we're wanting. DH actually made the point that it was silly to have this huge hole in the wall, but you can only actually use half of it.

We do have expansive clay soil, and all of the current patio doors are wood. You can definitely tell when you open them if we've had a lot of rain, or it's very humid. I wonder if you replaced the frame with fiberglass or steel if it would matter? I hadn't thought about that problem, though, so thanks for pointing that out.

One set of doors gets quite wet when it rains. The current doors are wood and starting to rot, which is why we want fiberglass. It's a high traffic door, so we don't want steel.

The other door is just old and a bit tattered. and we decided if we're replacing one, we may as do both at the same time and get something that matches, and is more energy efficient.

There's another single door with the (plastic) grill just screwed onto the outside, and I'm thinking of taking it off, just because it's such a chore to clean.